By IANS,
New Delhi : Eminent citizens and political leaders, cutting across party lines, Friday vehemently opposed the widespread political clamour for a headcount on the basis of caste.
The views were expressed at a news conference organised in the capital by civil society members opposed to the demand for a caste based census.
“Counting us on the basis of caste will be like counting different herds of cattle separately… so many cows, so many goats, so many oxen and so many buffaloes,” said Bharat Natyam exponent Sonal Mansingh while opposing the caste census.
“It will be a tragedy and shear humiliating for Indian citizens if and when the government decides to count us like herds of cattle,” Singh said. The conference, under the banner of ‘Meri Jati Hindustani,’ was addressed amongst others by Congress leaders Vasant Sathe and Balram Jakhar.
The famous dancer’s opposition to the caste-based census was supported by former Union Minister Arif Mohammed Khan. “The founding fathers of our constitution firmly rejected the concept of separate electorate and declared untouchability as illegal,” said Khan.
“While the concept of separate electorate was rejected to nip communalism, untouchablity was banned to negate castesim,” the former minister added.
Resorting to headcount on the basis of caste would spell “doom and division of the society like never before,” warned Khan, ruing that though “the constitution recognises citizens as the building block and unit of this country whereas the politician recognises them in terms of the caste and community that he might be belonging to.”
Echoing Khan’s views, former Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash C. Kashyap scoffed the move for “census on the basis of a word that the Constitution refuses to recognise.”
“The constitution has used the word ‘caste’ only twice – in Article 15 and 16 to forbid the state from practicing any discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, race, sex, region religion etc,” said Kashyap adding “the Constitution does use the word Scheduled Caste, but that is not the same as caste.”
He said that if a census on the basis of caste is conducted, the so called forwards castes would be driven to a mentality of being minorities and their position in India will be akin to that of Jews in America, controlling all the resources but suffering from minority complex.
Addressing the news conference, Ved Pratap Vaidik, a columnist, who is spearheading the movement, claimed that he had the support of a wide cross section of society, cutting across party lines and ideological levels.
He also claimed to have talked to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue, and he too did not appear to be comfortable with it.
Vaidik said that his movment had the support of leaders like Somnath Chatterjee, Ram Jethmalani, Jagmohan, Kapila Vatsyayan and several other former bureaucrats, artists and intellectuals.
After the demand for a caste-based census was made in parliament and elsewhere, the union cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Manmohan Singh, constituted a Group of Ministers to study the issue and make a recommendation.